


And Death Cannot End It

by Kita_the_Spaz



Series: Sockathan Week [3]
Category: Welcome to Hell - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, Car Accidents, Character Death, Choices, Implied/Referenced Suicide, M/M, Please Don't Kill Me, Sockathan Week-Day three
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-07
Updated: 2015-10-07
Packaged: 2018-04-25 07:35:15
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,491
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4951954
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kita_the_Spaz/pseuds/Kita_the_Spaz
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jonathan Combs died on March seventeenth, during an early spring snow, just outside of Madison, Wisconsin. Merging onto 151, a semi truck fishtailed in the fresh snow, the trailer spanning every lane and forcing several cars into the side-rail. The rail could not take the abuse and buckled, sending two of them tumbling down the embankment in an uncontrolled fall.</p><p>Written for Sockathan Week Day three: Post-suicide... It kind of ran away with me and took me down a different path than I was expecting.</p>
            </blockquote>





	And Death Cannot End It

Jonathan Combs died on March seventeenth, during an early spring snow, just outside of Madison, Wisconsin. Merging onto 151, a semi truck fishtailed in the fresh snow, the trailer spanning every lane and forcing several cars into the side-rail. The rail could not take the abuse and buckled, sending two of them tumbling down the embankment in an uncontrolled fall, to land in crumpled heaps of metal and glass at the bottom.

Jonathan Combs was in one of the cars and died instantly, his neck broken in the fall. He wasn’t alone, though the police report would state that he was.

Jonathan stood outside the mangled wreck of his car, snow blowing around him. He didn’t feel the cold of nature, though. The chill he felt was in watching Sock desperately try and pry him out of the twisted heap of metal.

The little demon was crying openly, his intangible hands unable to touch anything no matter how desperately he tried. _“No-no-no-no-no_ … Jonathan… no! You have to be alive. You can’t die like this… Jonathan, you can’t leave me like this, if it’s an accident, you won’t go to hell. You’ll be in heaven and I’ll never see you again…” The frantic torrent of words was broken by hiccups and sniffles and desperate attempts to haul cooling flesh from the broken vehicle.

“Sock…?”

Sock looked up, but didn’t seem to see him. Tears streaking his round cheeks, he returned to frantically trying to pull Jonathan’s dead body from the wreckage.

“Sock?!”

“He can’t hear you, hun.” The melodious voice sounded almost in his ear.

Jonathan startled and turned, tearing his eyes away from Sock’s broken sobbing.

She hovered inches above the new-fallen snow, wearing a three piece suit that was even whiter than the snow, a suggestion of ethereal wings spread out behind her. She was several inches shorter than him, even so. Her skin was the color of rich cocoa and her hair seemed to shift between a purple pixie cut and something that was a slice of night sky, teeming with stars and galaxies. Her eyes matched the theme, varying between sparkling gold and something dark and ancient and full of stars. “Hello, love.” Her smile was warm and welcoming. “My name is Providence.”

“Why can’t he hear me?” Jonathan glanced back at where Sock was still trying to free Jonathan’s body from the wreck. His sobbing was all but hopeless now, soft desperate cries of pain.

Her smile faded a little around the edges. “At the moment, you are neither here nor there. You are something between a ghost and an angel. He is on the other end of the spectrum, a demon. Were you fully angel or fully specter, he would sense you.”

Sock’s voice had broken and he made only soft, wretched sounds. Jonathan ached to hear them. “He mentioned you once. You’re like god.”

“Don’t call me that. That label is one your society made and has nothing to do with me except in the vaguest sense.” She frowned. “Now I believe I understand why poor Mephistopheles is always trying to disassociate himself with human themes of hell and the devil.”

“Fine, Providence, then— can you let him see me?” Jonathan spared her a glance, most of his attention on the demon that had been his constant companion for years.

Her gaze softened. “I don’t think that would be a good idea, hun.”

Jonathan scowled at her. “Why not? Look at him!” He waved an arm at where Sock crouched disconsolately in the snow. “Wouldn’t he do better to know I’m okay?”

She tipped her head to one side like a curious bird, those changeable eyes pinning him. “And will he do better to see you, knowing he’s lost you?”

A jolt ran through Jonathan, like an electric shock without pain. “What?”

“You died in an accident, hun. A suicide would have put you within hell’s purview, but you didn’t ever fall for his pleadings.” Her smile was sharp-edged. “Your soul is tarnished by his influence, but clean enough.”

Warmth, the first he had felt since he’d come to awareness outside his body, washed over Jonathan.

“I think you might be trying too hard to influence him,” a mellow voice with a hint of an accent he couldn’t place purred through the air.

A wisp of fire flickered near Providence, burning bright gold and orange. It shot upward and in the blink of an eye, became a lanky man in a suit of dark maroon shading to black. His hair was the color of the flames he had emerged from, and his golden eyes glittered above a wide, sly-edged smile. He examined his nails casually before glancing up at Providence. “He has been around a demon— how long has it been in human terms, kid?” He shot Jonathan a sidelong glance.

“Three years,” Jonathan answered almost automatically.

“Is that a while, then? I never did grasp the mechanics of time. Whether it moves or you mortals move through it… it’s all rather mystifying, and kind of pointless with such a malleable concept.” He waved a pale hand exaggeratedly.

“Mephistopheles.” Providence greeted, sounding like she was forcing the name out through gritted teeth. “What brings you from your domain?”

Mephistopheles’ smile widened, shark-like. “Why, the same thing that brought you from yours. I came to collect what’s mine.”

Providence sighed. “Yes, yes… your demon is over there having a breakdown.” She gestured toward where Sock had renewed his futile efforts to free Jonathan’s body from the wreckage.

“What makes you think I’m here for Sock?” Mephistopheles smirked, examining his nails again with a deliberate air of casualness.

Jonathan wasn’t sure what was up but he was beginning to think there was an entire soap opera going on between those two. He sidled away while their attention was on each other. Maybe if he could get Sock to see him, he could keep Sock from making those pitiable, horrible sounds.

“You don’t have a prior claim on him, Providence. I do.” Mephistopheles continued.

“Any claim you had, died with him.” Providence’s voice sounded like the beginning of a thunderstorm, that ominous quiet before the first roar of thunder. It sent icy chills through every fiber of Jonathan’s being, warning that whatever else they were, those two were scary and powerful.

He broke and ran, falling to his knees at Sock’s side. “Sock? C’mon, Sock… I know you heard me, just a little. Listen to me now.”

He kept a wary eye on the two… _deities?_ … fighting over his fate a few feet away. He hadn’t attracted their attention and he wanted to keep it that way.

Sock was still trying to tug futilely at one of Jonathan’s battered and bloody arms. It hurt to see him so broken.

“C’mon, dammit, Sock,” Jonathan pled. He didn’t know why, but it seemed like the most important thing right now was to get Sock to see him. He reached out a hand and tried to touch Sock’s arm.

A shock traveled up his fingers, almost painful and spreading up his arm like lightning.

Sock turned, green eyes wide and shocked. “J-Jonathan?” he wavered in a broken, thick voice.

“Sock?” He was so concerned about Sock that he didn’t see Mephistopheles and Providence stop their arguing and look over at them. “Sock? Can you see me now?”

Sock flung himself at Jonathan, wrapping his arms tightly around Jonathan’s shoulders. He babbled Jonathan’s name over and over in a breathless voice. It was answer enough and Jonathan closed his arms around Sock’s skinny frame.

Like this, Sock was as real and tangible as Jonathan, warm and solid in his arms. Jonathan breathed a sigh of relief into Sock’s thick hair. “I’m here…”

He was so absorbed in Sock that he didn’t notice Providence and Mephistopheles coming over until both of them were looming over them. Still cradling Sock, Jonathan glanced up warily.

Providence was watching them, something soft and almost sad in her ancient gaze.

Mephistopheles was watching her, a triumphant smirk on his face, but something unnamable in his eyes.

“What would you choose?” Providence’s voice was quiet. “You died accidentally, so you are not automatically bound for hell, but you are bound to a demon… this time by choice.” She smiled almost sadly.

Jonathan fixed his attention on her, something sparking in the back of his mind. “So I get to choose? If I had chosen suicide, I would have automatically gone to hell. But because it was an accident, I can go to heaven?”

At the word ‘heaven’ Sock’s arms tightened so hard Jonathan thought he could feel his ribs creak. He smoothed a hand down Sock’s back soothingly. “What if it was suicide? What if I had actually turned into the crash deliberately?”

“You didn’t,” Providence said patiently. “You could claim it, but the truth is here.” She lowered a hand to touch a single finger to his forehead.

The touch tingled, and seemed to wipe away some of the uncertainty. “But if I claimed it?”

“I can answer that one, kid.” Mephistopheles put in. “You wouldn’t go to heaven. But a lie made out of love is still not enough to send you to hell. At best, you’d continue on as a ghost, unable to move on. You’d fade, though. Memory is fleeting in you humans. Emotion remains, but what made you yourself would slowly wear away.”

The feel of Sock’s fingers clenching in his shirt decided Jonathan. “Well, what if I deliberately made the choice between accident and suicide?”

“What?” Mephistopheles and Providence asked as one.

“He—” Jonathan jerked a thumb at Mephistopheles. “Said time is malleable to you guys, right? So give me the choice. Put me back to just before the wreck. If it’s accidental, I go to heaven. If not, I go to hell. Let me make that choice.”

At that, Sock looked up. “Jonathan…?”

“Shhh.” Jonathan kept his attention of the two beings before him. “Deal?”

Mephistopheles laughed, a boom of sound that shook the ground. “Heh! I like you, kid. I’ll agree to that.” His golden eyes turned to Providence. “And you?”

She didn’t look at him, all her attention still on Jonathan. “Are you sure about this? It’s not a choice to be made lightly… and not one you can make again.”

Sock stirred, his mouth opening in what Jonathan was sure would be a protest.

Jonathan shut him up by dropping a quick kiss on those open lips. “Hush. Trust me.” He looked up at Providence. “I’m sure.”

She didn’t smile. “Fine…” The word escaped on a sigh.

Between one breath and the next he was back in the driver’s seat, Sock singing along to “Bubblegum Bitch” on the radio and the truck looming, far too close to avoid. She wasn’t above laying the odds in her favor, Jonathan thought grimly.

Well, neither was he. Jonathan killed the engine and jerked the wheel sharply to the left. Sock flew out of the passenger’s side with an abortive yelp. Without traction, the car spun out abruptly, slewing cross the road and coming to a skidding stop half on the shoulder where the on-ramp connected with the interstate.

Beside him the truck was coming to its screeching, sliding, crunching halt. Jonathan had a moment to note that only one car was tumbling down the embankment, then an oncoming car clipped his bumper and his head slammed hard into the glass of the driver’s side window. His last thought slipping into the darkness was to never try to cheat a god. They cheated worse.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

He woke to a throbbing head and the quiet beeps of a heart monitor. He knew Sock was nearby without even opening his eyes, some sense telling him the demon was close. He dragged a reluctant eye open, unsure. He was lying in a hospital bed, staring at a white ceiling.

Sock’s face came into his view, lines of worry fading from his face. “Jonathan!” His voice was relieved. “You’re okay!”

“Ow,” Jonathan whispered.

Sock immediately quieted. “Oh, sorry. You hit your head pretty hard. You’ve been unconscious for the better part of two days. You woke up a few times but weren’t lucid.”

“What happened?”

“A truck lost control and caused a huge wreck. You just managed to avoid it, but another car hit you.”

The memory came back in a blinding flash. He’d been dead. Sock hysterically trying to pull his dead body from the wreckage. Providence and Mephistopheles; the argument over where he belonged, the deal… Oh, god… He’d been _dead!_

The beeps of the heart monitor sped up in time with his racing heart. “You…” Jonathan had to stop himself, trying to think clearly when his head was a mass of pain and full of conflicting images. “Wait, I avoided it?”

Sock nodded enthusiastically. “I don’t know how you did it! I had barely even seen the truck when you were already turning the wheel.”

Jonathan shuddered, stomach churning. Sock only remembered the reset, not the time before. Not… his death.

A nurse bustled in, a stout black woman in immaculate white scrubs. Briskly businesslike, her eyes immediately fastened on the racing heartbeat showing on the screen of the heart monitor. “You shouldn’t let yourself get so worked up, dear, you’re fine. We’ll be keeping you a few more days for observation, but everything looks good.”

Jonathan managed a numb nod, but couldn’t stop shaking. His heart was still racing and his mind spun around in dizzy circles. He had been _dead!_

The nurse tutted. “You’re shocky, hun. I’ll give you something to settle your nerves.”

Before Jonathan could frame a protest, she had a syringe in hand and was injecting something into his IV. “Just relax,” she chided softly. “You’ll be fine.”

Her hand smoothed over his brow, warm and soothing. Against his wishes, he found his eyes drifting closed. She leaned over and kissed his forehead with motherly tenderness. “Shhh. You’ll be just fine.” Her voice whispered in his ear. "Both of you.“

The last thing he saw was her golden eyes twinkling merrily at him.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Mephistopheles waited for her outside the door. "He won’t remember anything?”

Providence let the guise of the nurse fall away like so many cobwebs. “Nothing. He doesn’t need to remember his own death. And Sock?”

Mephistopheles shook his head. “I already erased it from his mind. As traumatized as he was, it was easy.”

“Good,” She smiled softly. “He would thank you for that mercy… if he could remember.”

Mephistopheles chuckled softly. “Funny. But don’t think you can distract me that way. You still owe me. I won our little bet.”

Providence puffed her cheeks out in a stubborn pout. “Fine, fine. You were right. He would choose anything to keep Sock at his side. What do you want as your forfeit?”

He offered his hand. "Let's get out of here first. I'll think of something."

**Author's Note:**

> Oh, gods, please don't kill me for this one.


End file.
